1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to stepper exercise apparatuses, and more particularly, to a stepper exercise apparatus providing a variety of exercise modes. The disclosed exercise apparatus has pedals guiding a primary backward and downward sliding track and an expanding track is additionally integrated into the primary sliding track. The variety of exercise modes of the stepper includes a simultaneous stepping mode, an alternate stepping mode, an undulate stepping mode, and a floating stepping mode.
2. Description of Related Art
When a user uses a conventional stepper exercise apparatus, he/she may primarily tread down a pedal assembly of the stepper exercise apparatus using his/her feet to prompt a right pedal and a left pedal of a pedal assembly to move vertically so that he/she can carry out leg movement resembling mark time in order to exercise his/her muscle groups that would be used during daily walking and stair climbing.
One notable problem of such conventional stepper exercise apparatus is the inflexible track of leg exercise it provides. Some additional exercise modes, such as simultaneous stepping and alternate stepping, or auxiliary function, such as guiding waist twisting may be available by properly modifying the mechanism of the conventional apparatus. However, the primary exercise track is still limited as the vertical movement with respect to the ground. Therefore, the muscle groups that get exercised are only those used during vertical stepping movement and, obviously, exercise for hip abductions is neglected in the conventional stepper exercise apparatus.
Some development has therefore been done to address the foregoing neglect. For example, a Taiwan Patent Application, appointed with Publication Number 577336, ameliorates the conventional vertical exercise movement into a non-vertical and expanding exercise movement. Thereby, in addition to the muscle groups that would be used during daily walking, the hip-abductions can also get exercised. However, in view of the mechanical design, as the said prior-art requires numerous components and complex structure, the fabrication and maintenance thereof are accordingly inconvenient. Besides, it bears a higher risk of inadequate transmission.